Thirsty (novel)

Thirsty by Kristin Bair O'Keefe is historical fiction that resonates with today's reader. "I am unhappy. I despise my husband. I settled in ways I'd never planned. I am not honest. All my life I've shared in lies. I lied to my children, told them this world was good and kind despite their father's cruelty," words from Klara, the main character of this stunning debut novel. Klara leaves Croatia in 1883 at the age of sixteen and marries Drago to escape the fists of her father and the never-ending care of her five siblings. They come to American looking for a better life and instead find Thirsty, Pennsylvania, a coal mining town that seems colored in shades of mustard yellow, black, and red and free of any beauty. Klara and Drago's marriage quickly falls into the pattern of Klara's parents: screams, abuse, black eyes and bloody noses. Into this dark world, Klara brings three children, including daughter Sky who eventually continues the family tradition of violent marriage. The novel follows over thirty years of Klara's life as she faces death, loss, and grief beyond imagine. O'Keefe's voice is bruising in its brutal honesty about the legacy of familial abuse, but she leaves the reader breathless and with just a hint of hope for the fate of Sky's daughters. This is a novel that just won't let the reader go even with the turn of the final page.